Video Roundup: Tope, YACHT, AU, My Body, Magic Mouth, Anya Marina

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Tope

Are you staring wistfully out of your office window, wondering when the clouds are going to burn off to let the sun take over for another glorious spring day? You're not alone. But, your friends here at Local Cut are here to help; help with some better stuff to ogle instead of the frustratingly overcast skies.

Start with a new clip by the first hip-hop artist signed to Amigo/Amiga Records, Tope. The video looks as if it were edited on a pair of VCRs, providing a nice counterbalance to this young rapper's boasting and cheeky wordplay.

The fine young disco theorists known as YACHT are gearing up for a big European tour, and to celebrate it, they've unleashed a new track with video on the land. This one is a cover of "Le Goudron," a song first recorded by Brigitte Fontaine with the jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. In the hands of Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt, the avant pop song is turned into a smoking hot dance classic.

Also currently busying themselves with a European tour is the duo AU. But while they were away, they kindly gave us something to remember them by: a surrealist animated video for their song "OJ".

The dance pop quartet My Body have also found one of their songs animated in video form. In this case, the song is a sultry jam called "New Cat" and the animating appears to have been done on a vintage Amiga home computer.

Perhaps you read about Magic Mouth in the pages of our print edition, and maybe you were lucky enough to get to their EP release show at Mississippi Studios. But if not, let us both reintroduce you to this soul/disco/gospel dance explosion, and give you a peep at the video the band played before their steaming live set. As the song title says, this will make you believer.

We close out this edition of the Video Roundup with a new clip by singer-songwriter Anya Marina. A very on-the-nose video filmed at (I believe) the Mt. Scott Community Center skating rink, with a young man pining over a young lady who is skating with another dude. As sickly sweet as Marina's feathery vocals and just as likely to induce tooth decay.